With Comic Con a lot more spread out and so many paths blocked, we didn’t make it to quite as many panels and events this year. But, there was still some great stuff!

We’re always happy to see that Tess Fowler is up to something new, and her new project for IDW, “Black Crown,” looks to be darkly fabulous.

Black Crown

We made it to Cosplay 101 where Bob Mogg was showing off his steampunk Batman costume and providing all manner of useful advice for cosplayers novice and expert.

Cosplay 101

Sparky even spotted a Delores Umbridge in the crowd, although we confess to being more enamored with Kelly Varner’s version.

Delores Umbridge

We’ve been reading Arcana’s “Howard Lovecraft” series recently, so we really enjoyed the panel on the movie.

Howard Lovecraft

Of course, there were sightings of amazing costumes including this Groot that was at least 7’ tall.

I Am Groot

Kelly and Murray crushed this 1950s Star Trek mashup.

1950 Star Trek Mashup

This kid was having the best Comic Con of all! Her dad would hoist her up in the air every couple of minutes, sending her into squeals of delight. Sparky wants to know if she can get someone to do this for her.

Wonder Baby

Check out the Samurai droid mashup!

Samurai Droids

And what Comic Con would be complete without the Starburner Galactic Courier Service steampunk meetup and awards? Kudos to the Starburners for the ensemble cosplay with the Victorian baseball costumes.

Play Ball!

But the highlight of the meetup was when Jeb Haught surprised his long-time girlfriend, Barbara Lekes, with a marriage proposal.

She Said, “Yes”

Sparky spent quite a bit of time lending a hand in the Gaslight Gathering booth. The highlight was a chance to be in KPBS’s live stream of the fan tables on the mezzanine.

Booth Hand Sparky

We were quite literally heading for the door to leave on Sunday when we spotted Nichelle Nichols! Not to be those children of the 60s, but squee!

Nichelle_Nichols

We did find a few minutes of quiet to enjoy a romantic meal at our favorite downtown dining spot, Café Chloe. How can a girl resist a boy who orders her sparkling rosé?

Drake showed off his martial arts skills with the premiere of his tutorial on cane defense. There was much clamoring to repeat it at future events.

Take That! And That!

We premiered “There Was Once a Steampunk from Limerick™.” You can find the first batch of results on the new limerick page on our new website page Library of Limericks.

And there were old favorites. Drake & McTrowell’s “Hot Potato School of Writing™” was way off the hook this time with newbie Cindy Diamond and repeat offender Kelly Varner. Plus, it was right after the absinthe panel, so it was more colorful than usual.

Why Does the Green Fairy Make Hot Potatoes so Blue?

For “Theatre of the Historically Improbable™” we performed both “The Evil Cheesemonger” and “Green Grass, Brown Well.” We were joined by Sage & Savant and Debra Brunner, all of whom contributed a significant amount of tomfoolery to the proceedings.

Wall-to-Wall Tomfoolery

We found just a few minutes to look in on other happenings including a sighting of Dyno Staats.

Magic and Choo Choo, What’s Not to Love?

But our greatest achievement of the weekend was to cast, shoot, edit, and screen a video with a great amount of support from Dreadfully Punk and L.O.S.E.R., the video “Hiring Day.”

Gaslight Gathering is only a week away, so this is our final reveal! Last, but certainly not least, we'll be doing Theatre of the Historically Improbable™. That means sock puppets and skits! So bring your inner vaudevillian and puppeteer; hilarity is bound to ensure.

If you've seen us at a convention in the last few years, you've probably seen our improvisational, audience-participation, writing game show, Hot Potato School of Writing™. But just because you've seen it once (or twice) doesn't mean you've seen all there is. It's different every time thanks to the wacky input of the audience's "Hot Potato" plot points, the audience members who volunteer to play, and the creativity of our guest authors. We'll be joined this time by Kelly Varner (a notorious repeat offender) and Cindy Kinnard-Diamond. Come lob a few hilarious flaming spuds with us at Gaslight Gathering the weekend of May 12 - 14.

If you missed our first three announcements about other engagingly comical things we're doing at Gaslight Gathering, you can find them here and here and here.